Butterfly Gardening

Oak Leaves

Organic Fertilizer - Feed the soil, not the plant

Providing your plants with the proper nutrition will help to keep them in optimum health, and enable them to fight off disease and pest attacks. Fertilizers often have three numbers on the packaging, indicating the proportions of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, three elements essential for plant growth and health. These simple organic formulas can easily replace chemical fertilizers and offer the bonus of adding trace elements and improving your soil. Organic fertilizers won’t ‘burn” your plants, and are naturally slow-release, feeding your soil and plants for months.

Nitrogen sources:

Phosphorus sources:

Potassium sources

Alfalfa meal

Bone meal

Kelp meal

Canola meal

Rock phosphate

Green sand

Flax seed meal

Wood ashes

Soya meal

Blood meal

Cottonseed meal

Meat meal

Other ingredients:

Epsom salts – an excellent source of magnesium

Lime – raises soil pH, and adds calcium

These products are often available at feed stores and many garden centres. Since many of them are fine powders, wear a dust mask or respirator, gloves and goggles when mixing.

Recipes:

Basic all purpose fertilizer

Great for the flower border or vegetable garden!

• 4 parts seed meal (flax, cottonseed, canola…)

• 1 part rock phosphate

• 1/2 part bone meal

• 1 part greensand

• ½ part kelp meal

optional: 1 part lime (do not use for potatoes or acid-loving plants)

Apply at a rate of 2-3 kg per 10 square meters, or 1/3 to 2/3 of a cup per transplant when planting.

Lawn fertilizers

Lawns will benefit from applications of sifted compost, or any of the nitrogen sources listed above. Another organic lawn fertilizer to try is corn gluten meal, which fertilizes the grass while suppressing weed seed germination!